In the Introduction of Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s instructional video published by REH, he says, “My name is Yngwie Malmsteen. J Malmsteen, by the way.”

I never quite knew what that meant; his name isn’t exactly common so why the need to differentiate by stressing the J?

When I read Malmsteen’s Relentless: the memoir, that 20-year-old question that had always made me think “What the hell is that about” was answered.

David St Hubbins is quoted as saying, “I like the way he puts Yngwie J. Malmsteen on his albums-you know, so you don’t confuse him with all the other Yngwie Malmsteens in the business.” After reading that it clicked. In the intro for his guitar video Malmsteen was referring to the quote from David St. Hubbins. It was like a musical cold case file had finally been answered.

The whole memoir is a difficult book to put down. From beginning to end it’s filled with Malmsteen’s inspirational stories and life lessons.

His story about how he started guitar showed me how spoiled I was as a kid, when I started playing guitar. Malmsteen started off on an acoustic and played on one string until it broke, then he moved onto the next string until they were all broken.

I had heard that he had developed tendonitis at one point. If he did, he didn’t talk about that in his memoir, but what he did talk about was the car accident that he was in. His injuries didn’t stop him. In fact, Malmsteen seems to have looked at the accident like leg weights. After he finally healed up and lost the handicap, he could play faster than ever—like taking the leg weight off and running.

No matter what happened in his life, Malmsteen pushed through it with unbreakable determination, and that makes his memoir a great read for anyone, whether a musician or not.